Favorite Twilight Zone episode except these...

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Quick question for the experts here:

Was there an original TZ ep that dealt with a man who has the power to "trade attributes" with others - and gets people to trade money for youth, age for intelligence, etc. - and then takes away someone's compassion, and the compassion-less guy promptly murders him?

Or was that an Outer Limits episode?

Actually, you may be thinking of an episode from the 70's CBS Radio Mystery Theater

No, that was definitely a TZ episode. "The Self Improvement of Salvadore Ross."

 

[Gojirob]

Also, what is up with that host? No menace at all! Wasn't he Robin Williams' little pal from Good Morning, Vietnam?

True, it's not Forrest Whittaker's best work. He can occasionally do menacing, like in Street Kings or The Last King of Scotland. However, he's generally better at playing the hapless everyman who suddenly finds himself plunged into a life-or-death situation, like in Phone Booth, Species, or Vantage Point.

Although, I don't think Rod Serling was very menacing either. If anything, there may have been an unsettling sense of dread from Serling's matter-of-fact description of the upcoming horrors. But with The Twilight Zone, I generally don't think being scary was the main point.

Perhaps menacing was the wrong word; What you said, creating a sense of dread or potential dread, was what I meant. But whatever FW's merits, the stories were just dreadful; again, even the best, the 'Good Life' sequel, hit a wall for me with the idea that Anthony's childhood was survivable for anyone else. The first ep remains the worst. Gated community/Dark secret was way cliche by 02; The false safety twist was something a dead man could see coming; and the final fate of our not-so-rebel was something not out of TZ, but the Sopranos.

 

[Zeta]

Quick question for the experts here:

Was there an original TZ ep that dealt with a man who has the power to "trade attributes" with others - and gets people to trade money for youth, age for intelligence, etc. - and then takes away someone's compassion, and the compassion-less guy promptly murders him?

Or was that an Outer Limits episode?

Actually, you may be thinking of an episode from the 70's CBS Radio Mystery Theater

No, that was definitely a TZ episode. "The Self Improvement of Salvadore Ross."

You're right Mr. Laser Beam, a quick Google search confirmed it! I don't remember the TZ episode but I just heard the same story on the CBS Radio Mystery Theater anthology (named "A Bargain in Blood," written by Henry Sleser)...I guess it was adapted for radio as well. Thanks for the correction...